February 18, 2010

The Visible Likeness

Tony Coulter here, back to present you with another batch of vinyl recordings, all -- in keeping with my self-imposed rules -- found since moving to Portland, OR six months ago. Following seven select tracks from these audio finds, I'll show you a few of my favorite empty record jackets. The image above, by the way, is a detail from one of those jackets -- the complete cover lurks beneath the fold.

Let's start with a 1981 single by a fine band who may be known to some of you for their 1980 LP Terrible Lizards, which has taken a turn in the Mutant Sounds spotlight. The two releases are pretty different, however: If the LP was the band's foray into experimental electronics, the single -- particularly the A-side, "Secret Agent Man," which you can hear below -- was a stylish stab at mutant pop that should appeal to lovers of minimal synth and the like. "Secret Agent Man" is, of course, a cover of the '60s television theme song written by P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri, and performed initially and most famously by Johnny Rivers. One highlight of Science Fiction's version is the brief appearance of ultra-cool, deadpan female vocals -- only wish they lasted longer.

Next up are a pair of singles that comprise a major discovery in my particular hermetic universe. The '80s band One of You was based in Ottawa, Canada, but both vocalists have accents that sound Russian or Polish to me -- in any case, they are clearly not Canadian by birth. (No names appear on either record to guide me in my feeble speculating, and no information is available online, as far as I can tell.) One of You's sound is very hard to pigeonhole, genre-wise, though certainly their somber gloominess gives them a bit of a Goth feel. The best I can do by way of comparisons is to say that they remind me a bit of a cross between Nico and Mauve Sideshow, sans electronics. In any case, their minimal and emotionally charged music, mainly featuring vocals and electric organ, is quite hypnotic and unique to these ears. I've given you the A-sides of both singles below, so why not decide for yourself.

One of You: Life Is So Hard / Faded Flowers (Scarab Records, 1981) 7"

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One of You: When the Sun Comes Up / Don't Be Desparate (Scarab Records, 1982) 7"

Turning next to an early '70s LP on the RPC custom-press label, we enter the realm of heartbreakingly earnest youth for Christ. The King's Four were attached to the First Brethren Church of Sunnyside, Washington, and their LP -- housed in a generic RPC cover -- consists mostly of simple, folky arrangements of religious standards, old and (at the time) new. What jumped out for me was group member Carolyn's intense reading of the "traditional" text "One Man's Life," which almost brought a tear to my eye -- even though I am thoroughly godless.

Despite its title, and the photo of a church that appears on the back cover, the next LP, Arel Thomas's Father Johns, is not actually a religious LP. Nor is it as goofy as the man's puffy shirt and checkered polyester pants would lead you to expect. Instead, what we have here is an odd hybrid of lounge and credible singer/songwriter sounds -- with something demented lurking under the surface. That demented quality erupts out into the open in the last track, which I've given you below. Certainly "Women Bring the Wine," a Thomas original, is an odd choice for a supper club gig! By the way, the album was recorded in Seattle and San Mateo, CA -- presumably sometime in the early '70s, judging from Arel's duds.

Next up is a privately released recording from a Latvian-American ensemble and vocalist, probably from 1972. I know absolutely nothing about Latvian music -- but feel quite certain that it's not supposed to sound like the instrumental track below, which features an early-model drum machine that seems to completely befuddle the group.

Moving from Latvia to Indonesia, by way of the dollar bin, we turn next to a Christian LP recorded by the Indonesian ensemble known as Nafiri Tuhan. Released in the Netherlands sometime in the seventies, I'll Fly Away -- apparently the group's fourth LP -- is a deliciously discombobulating mix of peppy, faintly rock-influenced easy-listening sounds, spiked throughout with various traditional Indonesian instruments. Toe-tapping cross-cultural absurdity par excellence.

Leaving behind records that seem too strange to exist, we turn next to records that don't exist at all. Beginning, I'd guess, sometime in the 1960s, a number of companies decided there was a need out there for a somewhat specialized product: replacement record covers. Intended to replace covers that had been lost or damaged, these were not the blank covers of dance 12"s, but rather had artwork -- sometimes rather striking artwork. Naturally, for efficiency's sake, each company had only a limited number of designs, which were sometimes associated with particular genres -- including, as can be seen below, psychedelic music.

Advertisement for Rep-Jak-It replacement covers:

LP cover in Globe Album's Re-Jak-It Psychedelic series:

Art: ??

My all-time favorite replacement jacket was produced by the Robins Electronics Corporation, and features a very Pop Art--ish collage cover, which can be seen below:

Occasionally, I will buy records just for the cover. The remainder of this post consists of six of these albums, which are provided for your visual enjoyment. I currently do not possess any of the LPs originally housed in these sleeves, either because I tossed them, or because I never owned the record to begin with -- i.e., the jacket was empty or had the wrong record in it. In some cases, I've just shown you a part of the cover.

Comments

these are amaZing!
oh, but for a sec i thought you were asking if they were "art??"
Yes, i cried aloud, yes.
Then felt rather foolish, once i discovered maestro B. Reid - i sure hope he's got some sweet-ass MURALS in some suburban Northwest town, or somewheres - Hoo,wee!
Thanks for posting, & i hope you enjoyed that How To Dance, cuz it might be as good on the in-side as out!

Mr.H: Wish I could tell you where to find copies of those great One of You singles. I bought them from someone who had only one copy of each, which he'd had since the '80s, in his own private collection. Hope to some day find out more about the band, and perhaps get in touch with them -- but for now, eBay and the like are all I can recommend.....